Proms 2022

[ucanseetheend]

so there is no prom at RAH on a saturday night 23rd July? Oh dear

[Pulcinella]

so there is no prom at RAH on a saturday night 23rd July? Oh dear

Presumably using the time to set up/rehearse The Wreckers?

[Andrew]

so there is no prom at RAH on a saturday night 23rd July? Oh dear

Yes, the music played from Gateshead was certainly different to the normal Proms mix.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

so there is no prom at RAH on a saturday night 23rd July? Oh dear

They only had two RAH Proms on that day.

[Nick Armstrong]

Perhaps the definition of a Radio 3 listener is one who can listen to Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade without being reminded of the early episodes of "Paul Temple". I'm sorry to have to admit that my exposure to Radio 4extra precludes me from qualifying.....

Well I seem to qualify despite being a Radio 4extra Paul Temple addict - can’t recall ever hearing the R-K… just the immortal Vivian Ellis theme tune (plus bits of Schubert etc strummed at odd moments by ‘Steve’ at the pianoforte…)

[ucanseetheend]

They only had two RAH Proms on that day.

two kids morning and afternoon Proms. No evening Prom that's my point

[Andrew]

Well I seem to qualify despite being a Radio 4extra Paul Temple addict - can’t recall ever hearing the R-K… just the immortal Vivian Ellis theme tune (plus bits of Schubert etc strummed at odd moments by ‘Steve’ at the pianoforte…)

The later series used the "Coronation Scot" by Vivian Ellis but the earlier ones used the R-K tune.

[Nick Armstrong]

The later series used the "Coronation Scot" by Vivian Ellis but the earlier ones used the R-K tune.

They’ve passed me by then! Was that pre-the Peter Coke/Marjorie Westbury duo?

[Keraulophone]

The later series used the "Coronation Scot" by Vivian Ellis

I find this aerial film of Coronation Scott steaming along accompanied by Vivian Ellis’s masterly musical portrait somehow rather affecting. It was inaugurated in 1937 for the coronation of King George VI, a more streamlined era than today. Just 6h 30min London to Glasgow, but curtailed by the outbreak of war in 1939.

https://youtu.be/CT7kbyVF-qE

.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

two kids morning and afternoon Proms. No evening Prom that's my point

Yes, well…

London has it lucky. It’s good that other parts of the UK are getting a look in. The Proms is supposed to be a great national music festival, but until now it has only been accessible in the bottom right hand corner of the nation.

[PhilipT]

Yes, well…

London has it lucky. It’s good that other parts of the UK are getting a look in. The Proms is supposed to be a great national music festival, but until now it has only been accessible in the bottom right hand corner of the nation.

With respect, I totally disagree. And I wonder whether you have thought this through.

It's a minor point, but for better or worse London has better communications to the rest of the country than pretty much anywhere else, and a wider choice of accommodation. I have met, in previous seasons, regular Prommers who lived in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Banff (Scotland, not Canada), Southampton, Scunthorpe, Lyme Regis and Gothenburg, to name just the places that come to mind. Anyone who says that the Proms is not accessible to them is either ignorant or deliberately lying - those people did not find the Proms inaccessible.

More importantly, the whole point of a festival is that by concentrating a large number of performances in a single place - any single place - and a short space of time it makes it worthwhile for people travelling from a distance to go. The travel costs are amortised, and accommodation per night is often cheaper. This point may be lost on some people, but it is not lost on those who go to, say, Glastonbury. If you asked those who go to Glastonbury whether it is a national festival, I think they would tell you that it is - it attracts people from all over the country. In my own case, I have never been to the Edinburgh Festival, or Aldeburgh, (or, for that matter, Salzburg or Bayreuth) and I would rather like to go to them all sometime, but I do not think any good would be served by having those festivals put on one performance in a season in my home city of Winchester.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Whilst London is evidently more accessible than anywhere else in the UK that doesn’t make the Proms financially accessible for most people. Post lockdown London hotels have put up prices by about 30 per cent . The proms coincide with the height of the tourist season - there are no discounts . The hotel I used to stay at was £150 a night - now its £230 . Yes you can stay cheaper but having stayed at about 50 different London hotels over the years anything under £150 is either going to be a long tube journey or grim. So a night at the proms for 2 with rail travel and a meal would be £550 - and that’s without lunches and tube so more like £600.There hasn’t been a concert so far worth that sort of outlay.
The only things that would have tempted me over the last few months have been the ROH Grimes and Jenufa. Very annoying that the former never got streamed…

[oddoneout]

All of which is perhaps an argument for building up the offering elsewhere in the country, rather than focusing on the fact that the Proms are in London?

[Andrew]

They’ve passed me by then! Was that pre-the Peter Coke/Marjorie Westbury duo?

Yes, the earlier ones had other performers, whose names escape me at the moment.

back on the Proms, my Sounds App took me to the Sunday lunchtime Prom from Belfast. I'm sorry to say I was unimpressed with the mix of music offered in this Prom. Maybe I ought to try and "get" (=understand) the more eclectic offerings of the Proms season, but the effort expended seems excessive for a meagre reward. Sorry, but there it is. Sunday evening's offering of "The Wreckers" was tremendous though!

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes, the earlier ones had other performers, whose names escape me at the moment.

back on the Proms, my Sounds App took me to the Sunday lunchtime Prom from Belfast. I'm sorry to say I was unimpressed with the mix of music offered in this Prom. Maybe I ought to try and "get" (=understand) the more eclectic offerings of the Proms season, but the effort expended seems excessive for a meagre reward. Sorry, but there it is. Sunday evening's offering of "The Wreckers" was tremendous though!

Best Prom of the entire season thus far, in my view.